(130 mins.) Released 1929-06-20
Director: Charles F. Reisner
Stars: Conrad Nagel, Jack Benny, John Gilbert, Norma Shearer
musical
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019993/
originally posted 19 Sep 2017 13:43
Awful. It's really a Revue, with no attempt at a story.
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Joan Crawford sings and dances. It's hard to believe they let her do that again, but she did, and with Fred Astaire no less (in Dancing Lady (1933), before his first Ginger Rogers pairing.)
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This has even more of the Brown/Freed songs that form the foundation of Singin' in the Rain (1952). I think they were all excerpted from this film among the dvd extras there, so owning this disc is pointless, unless you crave more Cliff Edwards (Ukelele Ike, future voice of Jiminy Cricket). This is the first of his 43 soundtrack credits.
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Probably a contributing factor to my purchase is that Marion Davies appears. She sings and dances, even executing modest bell kicks on both sides. Too bad there was no story, where she might have shown her comedic talent.
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The 3 stars of The Broadway Melody (1929) appear. [eye roll]
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Carla (not her birth name) Laemmle, niece of the founder of Universal Pictures, does a spritely dance.
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Erte is credited as costume designer and art director, his last of 9 films.
MGM, dir. Reisner, Cabanne; 5-
(Are you keeping score? 0 for 2 for MGM.)
